Six Months to Success– Celebrating Junar, Vendder, and Numote

Start-Up Chile is a program that lasts six short months. Many entrepreneurs decide to stay long after their contracts are over, others go back to their home country, and others make a new life for themselves in new locations, starting from zero. If one thing is certain, the participants leave the program having had six months of solid time to live, breathe, and sleep their startup. Many make advances that never would have been possible without partaking in Start-Up Chile.

Now, chapters of the 2010 pilot program are coming to a close– with three particular startups finalizing their contracts having made incredible strides in their companies during their time in Chile.

Junar, only the second startup to arrive to Chile to participate in the program, blossomed in the last six months growing their team from three people to eight, adding developers and designers from Chile and Uruguay to their already international founding team. They were the first startup in Start-Up Chile history to raise VC funds (US$1.2m), take part in the MIT100K challenge, theLaunch Conference, and the Red Innova Awards in the same year.

The Vendder team arrived to Chile shortly after Junar and were also able to make incredible strides in their startup. Originally from Porto, Portugal, they assisted in motivating the University of Porto to get involved in Start-Up Chile and, now,there are 5 Portuguese startups participating in the program. Not to mention, they were just named one of the top DIY solutions for small business e-commerce by Mashable and American Express Open Source. During their time in Start-Up Chile they grew their customer base exponentially from around 200 to over 3,500 paying and free clients while, also, taking part as teachers in the “Entrepreneurship 101″ course at the Universidad Católica del Norte in the Atacama Desert.

Numote is another startup whose contract is closing this week, who has been able to make a world of difference in their company. Their product is now available for any television company interested in creating mobile applications with real-time interactivity, based on their TV shows. In Chile, they were able to talk with several local channels and are now in the works of sealing deals. Vijay, the founder, has also taken many trips to the North to teach students about entrepreneurship.

We’re excited to see where their new paths will take them and look forward to seeing their next million dollar moves!

Reblogged with permission from Start-Up Chile´s blog